Growing Together
by OtisRegrets
Summary: "She snuck up on me" The story of how Finnick and Annie first met and slowly began to fall in love. Alternates between Finnick's POV and Annie's POV [[Bad summary but it is going to be different from most Finnick&Annie stories I've read so please give it a try]] Rated M for future gory memories and then future lemons


**_I love Finnick and Annie and I've been kind of jotting down random scenes from how I picture their story for a long time now, so I've decided to finally put them in order and turn them into a full story. I hope you enjoy. Please drop a review and tell me what you think._**

**Standard Disclaimer applies. These Finnick, Annie, Mags and any other character's that feature in The Hunger Games trilogy are not my creation, they belong to Suzanne Collins. But as she doesn't give us much of Finnick & Annie's back story, it gives me lots of room to play with. Annie and Finnick's families and any other Victors that may appear are my own creation.  
**

* * *

"Mama, you need to go back to bed. You're sick and if you try and do too much you'll just get sicker," I say, watching her wrestle my little brother's feet into his shoes before letting him go and play.

"I will take a short nap once you're all off to school but I have to go to work later. Don't worry, I'll be fine," she says with a smile that only makes the bags under her eyes appear deeper.

"You were throwing up all night! The only reason you aren't still is because there's nothing left in your stomach. You can't go and clean all day."

"Annie, darling… we just can't afford for me to take a day off right now," she sighs, glancing out of the window towards the ocean.

Normally we do alright for money, although both my parents have to work hard every day. But there's been a huge demand for tripletail at the Capitol parties and the boats have to go really far out to catch enough. My dad's already been gone three weeks with one of the boats and has another week left before he can come home. And we don't get his pay packet until his feet are safely back on shore, so we're struggling a little right now.

"Well, maybe I could help out? I could go over to the Victor's Village after school to clean those houses, and then you only have the few stores in town to clean," I suggest.

"What about walking Ereck home?"

"We've lived here our whole lives, Mom. I'm pretty sure Laurie can handle it for just one day!"

"You're probably right! Well then thank you, that would be a huge help. You need to clean Mags' house first as she lets me store the cleaning equipment there. And I'm sure she'll tell you who lives where so you don't get confused."

"OK, no problem then. You go back to bed for a while and get some sleep." I stand and press a kiss to her too hot forehead before heading outside to find my little brother and sister.

I'm hardly surprised to see them sat in our neighbor's garden, feeding the old fish scraps I'm sure I threw away last night to their cat. They love that fat fuzzball. There have been a few times where I've caught them depositing someone's male cat into the garden in the hopes that there would then me a little kitten they could adopt. I'm not sure how our dad would feel about an extra mouth to feed though so I keep shooing the male cats away when they're not looking.

"Come on guys or we'll be late for school. I'm sure she'll still be sat there waiting for your attention when you get home," I say and hold out their backpacks.

"I don't see why we have to go to school anyway," Laurie moans as she shrugs her backpack on.

"To learn," Ereck grins and holds my hand as we start to walk, "and to play with our friends."

"Exactly, you still have loads to learn," I say.

"Well, maybe according to books, but everyone in 4 goes to work with fishing and we don't need books for that," she argues, clearly in a bad mood this morning.

"What if you get a job in stock checking and had to make sure the Capitol gets the right amount of fish" I ask.

"I can count! I'd be fine!"

"Not if the order was by weight. You'd have to weigh the crates of fish then minus the weight of the empty crate itself and then work out how many crates you'd need to fulfill the order. Could you do that?"

"Well…"

"Or what if you had to work out the routes for the boats to take? Remember we only get a little bit of power for them so you'd have to work out wind directions in order to find the quickest routes. Do you think you could do that now?"

"Umm…"

"You see? I know that parts of school can be boring, especially the 'History of Panem' class, but it is necessary. Besides, you like the practical classes don't you? Learning how to use all the different fishing tools and how to prepare the fish? And you'll probably be starting your training for the Games soon. So just act like a normal 8 year old and look forward to seeing your friends."

"Alright then… I guess school isn't that unimportant. Oh look it's Marina! I'm going to walk with her."

I just watch, dumbfounded, as she suddenly perks up and skips off to walk with her classmate. She does worry me sometimes. Most of the time she acts like a normal, happy little girl, but then sometimes she just gets in a bad mood and can say the complete wrong thing. This morning wasn't so bad, but occasionally she'll come out with things against the peacekeepers or even against the Capitol directly. Luckily if someone hears her they just dismiss it as a hyperactive kid's rambling, but it'll need to be stopped before she gets older.

"Annie?" Ereck tugs on the hand he's holding to get my attention, "Can we do our tests?"

"Of course we can, what is 8 plus 4?" I ask him.

"Umm, 8…9…10…" he mumbles while counting it out on his fingers, "12! 8 plus 4 is 12."

"Correct! What is… 2 times 5?"

"Uh, I don't know?"

"Yeah you do. It's two lots of 5," I hold up my splayed hands one at a time to remind him.

"Oh," he grins and counts my fingers as fast as he can, "then it is 10!"

"Well done! OK, spelling. Spell… trout."

* * *

After school, I find Ereck and Laurie and instruct them to go straight home without stopping. If they want to go anywhere else they must go and ask mom first, even if it is just to a friend's house. I do mostly trust them to do as they're told; I'm just a little worried their friends will distract them. But I guess I'll just have to hope for the best as I really need to head to the Victor's Village. I'm just hoping that one of my father's friends will be at the dock and will have the time to take me over to the island. Luckily he has lots of friends so I'm sure one of them will be free. My mom always manages to get there anyway.

I'm completely lost in my own thoughts as I walk along the beach towards the docks, just enjoying the feel of the warm sand between my toes. Because of this though, I don't notice someone calling my name until they come to stand right in front of me.

"Annie! Earth to Annie! Are you there?"

I look up when it finally registers that the voice is trying to get my attention and a grin splits my face when I see who it belongs to, "Uncle Cutt!"

"Well hey there little one! You know you really need to break that whole 'spacing out' habit. People will start to think you're crazy!" he grins and ruffles my hair like he has done since I was a kid.

"Yeah, whatever. I'll work on it." I say, rolling my eyes at him.

"Be sure you do. Now, what are you doing here at this time? School let out early?"

"No, I just came here as soon as I got out."

"You trusted Laurie and Ereck to go home unsupervised?"

"Yeah… I'm hoping the lure of being allowed to do it again will make sure they behave!"

"Well you keep hoping that! Anyway, I've been meaning to come and see you all. How are you doing while your dad's away?"

"Umm, not so great to be honest. Aside from missing him, we've had to last longer without his pay packet so money is really tight right now. That's actually why I'm here."

"Oh Annie, you know I'd help you guys out if I could but I just don't have anything to spare at the moment. I'm sorry."

"Uncle Cutt, I'm not looking for a hand-out! You know my dad raised me better than that. It's just mom isn't feeling so good so I'm going to do her cleaning in the Victor's Village and…"

"And you need a ride over there? Well that I can do for you. I'm on a break from work at the moment. Come with me then."

The Victor's Village is located on a small island just off the bay; close enough that we can see and be jealous of the luxury but far enough away that we don't really get to visit it. Although that might be a good thing, because most of our victors are kind of stuck up. They seem to think that the fact they've killed 23 people is something to admire. I disagree. I may train for the games at school along with everyone else but I hope that I never get chosen.

Not all our victors are like that though; it seems to mostly be the younger ones. Our older victors such as Mags – who won the 10th Hunger Games and so was actually alive before they began, and Mr. Kreel – who was voted into the 25th Hunger Games but is a really friendly man who often spends his time on the mainland with us common people. I wonder if that is because they won before we started properly training for the games so they don't see it as as much of an honor, just as something that happened to them.

Uncle Cutt helps me get into one of the little rowing boats on the dock and passes the oars down to me before getting in himself. These boats always remind me of being a little kid as my dad always used to take me out on trips and make me help row to build up my strength. If you're stronger, you will be more likely to get a good job as an adult. I think even if we didn't officially train for the games, the kids from our district would have more of a chance as we're just stronger because of things like this. And we all know how to handle knives and fishing equipment.

"So, you said your mom is sick," Uncle Cutt says as we start to row out to the island, "what's wrong with her?"

"I don't know really. I don't think anything too serious. She just has a high temperature and was throwing up last night. I think she's been working too hard and exhausted herself," I say, "I'm sure she'll get better once dad's back."

"That's probably right. Your mom has always been bad whenever your dad is away, even before they were married. If she is still sick though, let me know. I think your Aunt still has some of those anti-nausea herbs left from when she was pregnant."

"I will, thank you, but I'm sure we won't need them."

We talk about mostly unimportant stuff for the rest of the trip; just school and my baby cousin and the latest antics of Laurie and Ereck. I hadn't seen my Uncle in over a week before today so it's nice to have a chance to catch up. But the trip to the island isn't a very long one so we don't bother to get into any of the important stuff, and before too long I'm jumping out onto the sandy shore and promising my uncle I'll be back here at nightfall so he can pick me up after his work shift. I'm sure I can kill some time swimming if I finish before he does.

I've been to Mags' house once before when I was a very little kid, before even Laurie was born. But I remember she had stepping stones across her grass that I insisted on jumping across several times while my mom was cleaning. So I walk through all the fancy houses and gardens while looking out for those stepping stones. I'm really quite nervous about meeting some of the Victors, as I doubt they will think a 14 year old girl will be able to do a good job. But given the choice between cleaning their house themselves or paying me to do it, I'm sure they'll pick the latter.

It doesn't actually take me too long to find Mags' house as it seems like it hasn't changed at all since I was last here. It looks just as impressive and grand, but I think it is really too big for one person. I think it could make you feel really lonely. Still, I'm glad my mom comes and cleans every few days so, even though the houses are big, there shouldn't be too much to do – just some dusting and sweeping I assume.

"Little Annie Cresta," Mags greets me with a smile when she opens the door, "You have grown up into a lovely young woman since the last time you were here."

"Thank you. It has been a very long time," I say.

"Yes it has. Come inside. Your mother had a message sent over to say that she wasn't feeling well and that you'd be coming to for her work for her."

I do wish Mags would speak a little louder. She seems to always whisper or mumble and it makes some words hard to hear properly.

"Yes, I thought it would be best for her to rest in bed and focus on getting better."

"You are a very good daughter. Well I have written down the houses that your mother usually cleans, in the order that she does them, and the names of who lives there so you won't get confused. If you start with my house – I only need the floors sweeping, the fires cleaning out and the bed linens changing. After that just work your way down the list so that you finish with our most recent victor."

* * *

Finnick Odair.

You can tell just from looking at his house that he's Panem's favorite victor. It is the biggest one on the island and has clearly been done up to look fancier than the others with a massive porch that drops right onto the beach and floor to ceiling windows in some places – although they are currently covered by curtains. It just shows that the Capitol loves a pretty boy even if he is a vicious killer. He won the Games 3 years ago, and even though he's only 17, he's already made quite a splash in the Capitol. It seems a train comes to take him there every other week, and we can see him schmoozing and flirting with Capitol partygoers on the televisions that work in the town square.

He's definitely the best looking victor we've ever had. Everyone thinks so. All the girls who act really serious about training for the Games seem to only work so hard in the hopes of catching his eye if they're reaped. I'm not sure possibly getting murdered is a reasonable risk just to meet a boy but they clearly do. I've never actually met him, although I've caught sight of him swimming by the island when I've been in the water as well. It is just my luck that the first time I actually do meet him I'm covered in dust and dirt and I think that might be a bleach stain on my skirt. Oh well, I'm here to clean his house not have dinner with him.

After I knock on his door, I am left waiting for about 10 minutes before I even hear any signs of life from within the house, and a further five minutes before he actually opens the front door. And I have to look away from the door immediately because Finnick has not bothered to get dressed today. At all.

"Umm… hi! I'm here to clean your house," I say, trying to keep my eyes far away from his… area.

"You're not the lady who normally comes to clean?" he says, sounding kind of sleepy and confused but not at all ashamed about his lack of dress.

"No… no I'm not. I'm her daughter and she's sick so I'm just, you know, filling in," I feel so awkward. Why is he answering his door without any clothes on?

"Oh… alright then, come in." he turns around and gestures for me to follow him inside.

"Great! Umm…so where would you like me to st– I'm sorry, could you maybe put some clothes on? Even just… some pants!"

"Pants? Oh…" he seems completely baffled to look to and see that he is naked, but makes no effort to cover himself, "Yeah, I'll go… dress. If you just start by picking up the trash."

Hmm… he's not at all like I expected him to be. That flirty, cocky self-assured Finnick that I remember from the television doesn't seem to be here at all. Maybe he's just tired or something as it looks like he hasn't been awake very long even if it is late in the afternoon.

Or maybe he's drunk.

There's an empty glass bottle on the floor by the sofa that smells like it once contained a very strong alcohol. I'm not entirely sure where he would have bought alcohol, as I've never seen anyone selling it legitimately and I can't imagine Finnick in any kind of black market. Although, I guess being a rich victor can open up a lot of doors. I've never really understood the perks of getting drunk though. Why would you want to disappear from reality for a while?

I wander around his living room, throwing everything that is obviously trash into an empty sack and putting anything that I'm not sure about into a neat pile on his table. I don't know how this much mess could have accumulated since my mother was last here. Especially as he is just one person.

"Oh, great job, that was pretty quick," Finnick's voice behind me makes me jump slightly as I didn't hear him coming back down the stairs. Thankfully he's wearing clothes now.

"Well, that's what you're paying me for! What else needs doing?" I say.

"Erm, well the floors definitely need sweeping as I seem to always be tracking in sand from the beach, I accidentally splashed something on the kitchen window when I was trying to cook and I can't get it off so if you could try that would be good, my bed sheets should probably be changed, oh, and can you cook?"

"Uh, not very well… I can toast bread?" I joke.

"Oh well, it was worth asking. But I think I can manage toasting bread alone. So, yeah, just those things then."

"Alright, I'll get started quietly. You won't even notice I'm here."

"Don't worry about trying to be quiet. It's kind of nice to have noise in this house as it's normally totally silent. It's too big for one person."

So I get started cleaning up, fully expecting Finnick to disappear off to another room and do whatever it is he does in his free time, but it seems he really is bored and lonely in this house because he stick around. I think he thinks he's helping but standing right where I'm trying to sweep isn't really helpful. But it seems to be cheering him up a little so I don't have the heart to ask him to stop or even move.

"So what's your name anyway?" he asks, kicking some of the san towards the pile I made and smiling like he did something incredible.

"Annie, Annie Cresta. Do you have a dustpan I can sweep this into?"

"A what?"

"Never mind, I'll just sweep it off the deck."

"Ok… well Annie is a lovely name. I'm Finnick Odair."

"Really? And here I was thinking you just look exactly like him and live in his house," I tease while sweeping the sand off the deck.

"Huh… yeah I guess I don't really need to introduce myself to anyone anymore," he says with a slightly forced laugh.

"Yeah, not really. Still, nice to meet you Finnick Odair."

"Likewise, Annie Cresta."

"OK, sweeping is done. Now let's tackle the mark on the window."

"Don't worry if you can't get it off. I couldn't."

Well if his attempt at window cleaning was anything like his attempt at sweeping that doesn't surprise me.

"I'm sure it can't be that bad, it'll just take a bit of scru – OK, it is that bad…" there is a massive streak of some congealing white liquid across one of the panes, "What were you trying to do?"

"Well my mom was worried that I'm not eating properly because I can't cook so she gave me what she thought was a simple step-by-step recipe for the stew she always makes. I think I went wrong at some point…"

"I think your first mistake was throwing it against the window…"

"Very funny, Cresta."

"Seriously though, why didn't you just cook a fish over a fire like you did during the Games? That's easy but it still tastes good."

"Uh… I guess I just didn't want… I don't want to do what I had to do in the Games ever again…"

Somehow I think he's not talking about fish.

"Well… I think that's probably a good idea."

"Yeah."

"Let's uh, make a start on that window. Do you have any alcohol?"

"I don't really think getting drunk will help us with this. Besides how old are you?"

"14, almost 15. But I wasn't thinking about drinking the alcohol. I was going to see if it would help lift the stain."

"Oh… that makes a lot more sense! Yeah I think I may have a bottle in that cabinet."

Thankfully, the bottle he pulls out is only a small one so I don't think he's actually an alcoholic. Maybe he just had the last of that bottle I found today, not the whole thing. I don't really know why I'm worried about that… it's probably just because he's too young to ruin his life by being a drunkard. But the alcohol is at least useful in cleaning the window. It doesn't take all the mess away but it looks a lot better.

"Hey, we did it!" Finnick grins, "Now I can see out the window again."

"It does look a lot better now. I'll ask my mom tonight if there's anything more we can do on it."

"Well I'm sure I won't even notice it after a while even if it can't get any better."

"Good. Ok, so it's just the bedding left to change now, right?"

"Yeah that's it. Then you can actually go home."

"And eat!"

"Lucky you. I think I'm going to go and throw myself on Mags' mercy and see if she'll feed me."

"Why don't you go home to your mom and ask her for food?"

"Erm, well, my little sister's only 10 and she's kind of… what she saw me do in the Games scared her and she's not quite old enough to understand that I'm not going to randomly do that to her. So I don't really spend a lot of time at home. They just come and visit me here when they can."

"Woah… I'm so sorry Finnick. I hope she realizes soon that you're not going to hurt her." I can't imagine not being able to spend time Laurie or Ereck.

"Yeah me too… I'm sure she will, once she's grown up a bit."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Come on, show me which bed needs changing."

Poor Finnick. I guess because our District always raises careers I've never thought about what it must be like for a victor and their family when they come back home. But from what I've seen today it's obviously pretty tough. Even just down to the fact that the sheets of all the beds I've changed have been soaked with sweat, which makes me think nightmares are pretty common. And most of our victors never marry and have kids so I imagine it must get lonely.

The only thing I don't understand is why Finnick goes back to the Capitol so often. Other than maybe because the Capitol people seem to see the Games as fun rather than scary so they're probably not afraid of him.

Finnick isn't really any help while changing the sheets either. It should have been a very quick job with two people but rather than helping by grabbing the other corner of the sheet, he puts the whole duvet cover over his head and stands right behind me as I work.

"Just what are you doing?" I ask after I've bumped into him for a third time.

"I'm a ghost. I am haunting you," he says through the sheet.

"Seriously? You know, you'd get on well with my brother," I say as I drag the sheet off his head so I can put the duvet inside it, "And he is four years old!"

"Are you calling me immature, Cresta?"

"No, no I'm saying that my brother is incredibly mature for his age."

"Urgh, so cruel! You wound me…" he says and clutches his heart with both hands.

"Oh I'm sure you'll live," I grin and lay the duvet down on the bed, "Alright, I am all done here."

"Good, now maybe my ego can recover!"

"I hardly think I did that much damage."

"Well true… I am pretty unbreakably amazing!"

"You keep thinking that, and I'm going to go home!"

"See you around, Cresta."

"See you, Odair."

* * *

_**Just a few points to make:**_

_**As you can tell, the first chapter is in Annie's POV but the whole story wont be. Some chapter's will be Finnick's POV and I will let you know whose it is at the begining on each chapter from now on.**_

_**The idea for District 4's Victor's Village being it's own island is not mine. I saw it on a map someone had drawn of how they imagined Panem and I just loved the idea of them having a private little island to try and recover on.**_

_**The timing here is set so Finnick is 17 and Annie is 14 (almost 15). The 68th Hunger Games have just recently finished and a girl from District 2 won.**_

_**If there is anything else that has confused you, let me know in a review and I will answer if I can. If it is something that is going to be resolved within the story I wont spoil it for you though!**_

_**If you want to come talk to me outside of here, come find me on tumblr under 'patches094'.**_


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